Durex
Lucian Landau
Around 975 Durex condoms are sold every minute. But if it wasn’t for the technological innovation of one Polish teenager, Lucian Landau, Durex may never have achieved the success it sees today. Landau, then only 17, was a student of rubber technology in 1929 London. Because of his student visa, Landau was unable to gain employment in the UK, but that couldn’t stop him from setting up his own business.
He hit upon the idea of selling condoms while experimenting with latex in his university’s lab, and went on to set up the UK’s first condom manufacturing plant. His idea attracted the interest of Lionel Jackson (whose parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants), a travelling condom salesman, who went into business with Landau to create condoms under the Durex brand.
All credit goes to Jessica Borge for uncovering the story of Landau in her book Protective Practices. A History of the London Rubber Company and the Condom Business (McGill-Queens University Press, 2020).
Lucian Landau at the entrance to British Latex Products, 1932 (© Vestry House Museum and the London Borough of Waltham Forest)
